"I hope that for the rest of my life, I will follow David's Rule, and question dogmatic views, give room for them, but hold them up to the light of reason, evidence, reality and truth," says Joe.

If only this view could be embraced by much of the world, Joe, it would pave the way for a better, more reflective, rational world.

Of course the fundamentalists who are running our world: the clerics, the capitalists, the ultra-nationalists, the wealthy and the politicians don't want this to happen given that fundamentalists are so easy to herd!

To question is the answer for our world's ills as the Greek Philosophers showed us thousands of years ago!

We are slow learners!

Hearing DavidG pontificating long about the evils of fundamentalism evokes a strange feeling --and I can't quite find the words to describe it --but it's rather like the feeling you'd get hearing Jack the Ripper bemoan street violence.

[Deleted for abuse.]

Hi David,

SPQR does have a point - perhaps all of us tend towards that dogmatic, 'I'm-right-you're-wrong' approach on our pet subjects, an approach which is not all that far from fundamentalism :)

Been there, done that !

Cheers,

Joe
www.firstsources.info

Loudmouth, I think you're right. It is much easier to identify fundamentalist tendencies in religious/political worldviews you disagree with, than those you agree with. The real paradox is that the term “fundamentalist” easily becomes a term of abuse that fundamentalists can hurl at their opponents as another excuse for failing to engage with the substance of what those opponents actually believe.

One hallmark of fundamentalists is that they find it impossible to believe that anyone can hold opinions different from their own. Differences are attributed to failure to say what one truly thinks (the silent majority agree with me but political correctness forbids them from saying so); sinister or venal motives (“Climate scientist X supports/challenges the theory of AGW because s/he is chasing research dollars/in the pay of big business”); or external manipulation (people only voted for Rudd/Abbott because the ABC/Murdoch media told them to).

'The universe and what came before the Big Bang has simply existed forever. '

plantagenet

your faith that such order come from such chaos is amazing.

I prefer to side with Einstein who wrote "Éveryone who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.